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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27282970">Cold and Alone</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sub_divided/pseuds/sub_divided'>sub_divided</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Horror, Ice, Mind the Tags, Post-Apocalypse, Science Fiction, Snow, the first time i'm ever using 'author chose not to warn' so</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 16:55:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,140</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27282970</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sub_divided/pseuds/sub_divided</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Further south, in the valley where they’d planned this expedition, a funny twist to the localized weather meant it rarely snowed, and you could see the evidence on the side of the trail - the corpses of previous hikers who’d fallen and been left there.  Not even bacteria lived in this cold, so the bodies stayed exactly where they’d fallen, a testament to man’s hubris.  </p><p>And the trash - so much trash.   Spent fuel tanks and energy bar wrappers, bags and pots and pans and thermoses all abandoned, no one bothering to do anything more than push them slightly off the trail.  Up here, you accepted the risks when you hiked north from the last settlement.  It was hard enough to carry your own weight.  Extra weight would get you killed.   </p><p>***</p><p>Tifa, Aerith, Cloud and Barret cross the North Pole. For Final Fantasy 7 Halloween Week - Day 6 Annihilation.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Cold and Alone</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for <a href="https://ffviihalloween.tumblr.com">https://ffviihalloween.tumblr.com/</a>!</p><p>OCT 30 🌲 <b>Annihilation</b><br/>environmental horror / place as monster</p><p>Please enjoy my extremely literal take on this theme ahaha.  Very heavily inspired (some might say stolen) from the section where they cross the North Pole in Neal Stephenson's Anathem.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The last hour in the afternoon, just before they stopped for the night, was always the hardest - though this far north, ‘night’ was a relative concept.  The sun dipped below the horizon for about two hours around midnight, that was all.  </p><p>Still, no matter how brightly the sun shone - no matter how much it reflected off the snow and into their high-visibility, polarized, wrap-around goggles - Tifa could feel her energy start to dip after lunch.  </p><p>A heavy weight would settle over her then, into her bones, and into her mind. All thoughts except the need to take the next step would vanish. She felt her movements robotically then - lift her foot, put it down.  Eyes trained on the ground in front of her, where Cloud and Barret took turns breaking in the trail, and she only had to find where their feet had been, to place her own.  </p><p>Behind her, even Aerith, who normally kept up a constant stream of chatter even when Tifa knew the scientist must be exhausted too, would fall silent.  They all focused on gaining ground slowly then, foot after painful foot.  As the snow continued to fall silently, filling in their footsteps, as if they’d never been there. </p><p>The evidence of previous transients, though, was all around even as the snow covered it up.  </p><p>Further south, in the valley where they’d planned this expedition, a funny twist to the localized weather meant it rarely snowed, and you could see the evidence on the side of the trail - the corpses of previous hikers who’d fallen and been left there.  Not even bacteria lived in this cold, so the bodies stayed exactly where they’d fallen, a testament to man’s hubris.  </p><p>And the trash - so much trash.   Spent fuel tanks and energy bar wrappers, bags and pots and pans and thermoses all abandoned, no one bothering to do anything more than push them slightly off the trail.  Up here, you accepted the risks when you hiked north from the last settlement.  It was enough to carry your own weight.  Extra weight would get you killed.  </p><p>Once you left the chokehold of the valley and entered the ‘mountains’ - the glaciers bumping up against each other, sliding up and over each other, more rapidly than you'd think - the snow covered the bodies and hid the trash, and everything looked new.    </p><p>But it brought its own dangers.  They roped themselves together and Cloud, in front, used a long pole to probe every step for hidden crevices before moving forward.  Barret, behind him, would anchor them with a steel spike if Cloud were to miss his footing and fall.  Barret had already promised to cut Cloud loose if it looked like they’d be dragged in after him, or if he fell in the water.  Hypothermia would mean instant death here.  </p><p>Bringing up the rear of their little caravan was a sled tied with a rope to Tifa and Aerith, with the heaviest of their supplies roped to it - mainly the fuel tanks, the most valuable thing they owned.  Every morning they poured liquid fuel into their suits, to power the heaters that kept them alive in this cold.  </p><p>They didn’t have enough fuel for the whole trip across the north pole, and South again into Svalbard.  That was the secret that Tifa and Aerith and Cloud and Barret all knew but didn’t talk about.  </p><p>***</p><p>“What do you think we’ll find in Svalbard?” Aerith asked the next morning.  </p><p>She always seemed to sleep soundly no matter the circumstances, and wake up refreshed, even before Barret grudgingly rationed out the instant coffee - another thing they’d soon run out of. </p><p>Maybe she was just a morning person.  </p><p>Maybe she was just a great actor.  </p><p>“Probably nothin',” Barret grumbled.  “It was a well known place before.  I bet it's already been cleaned out.”</p><p>“Oh, you’re no fun…”</p><p>“I’m sure there will be something there…” Tifa said.  “It’s not an easy place to get to.  I heard it’s completely blockaded from the south.”</p><p>“Obviously, or we’d be coming from that way…”</p><p>“Not without papers to cross the border we wouldn’t.”  Barret put an end to the discussion.  </p><p>This trek, north over the shifting glaciers in the spring while it was warm enough to cross, but before the ice bridges melted, was one of the only ways to leave the country.  Only the main truck routes across the north pole were guarded, if you were willing to leave their line of sight you could cross in any number of places.  Thousands of people made this border crossing every year. </p><p>Thousands more died in the attempt.  </p><p>“I hope she left a note for me...” Aerith said.  Her mother had been a researcher at Svalbard. </p><p>“I hope so, too,” Tifa told her, while Cloud offered an impressively empathetic shrug that said he felt the same way.     </p><p>“This place...” Barret said, musingly.  “It ain’t for amateurs.  It almost makes you think the ancient people were onto something, when they dug up the whole planet for fuel.”</p><p>“Ain’t no one living up here without it.”  </p><p>*</p><p>The weather in the last millenium had varied substantially. </p><p>Seven hundred years ago, this polar shelf had not existed at all.   All the ice caps had melted to nothing, and the sea levels had risen around the world.  </p><p>Then it had been warm enough for humans to live comfortably in Greenland year round, and as Tifa, Aerith, Cloud and Barret hiked north they passed the occasional old government building, post office, parking lot.  Even a two-story shopping mall, a few miles back.  </p><p>The people then had kept cows on the newly exposed pastures as the temperatures had risen, and lived off the milk and cheese in the winter.  Just like the vikings, though with a bit less fish left to get them through a bad year.  Still, it hadn't been a bad life for the average Greenlander. </p><p>Or, for that matter, for the rich, who'd lived in their militarized bunkers with food imported by helicopter.</p><p>Now that it was colder again, though, Greenland was quickly finding that there were too many people and not enough farmable land to feed them all.  </p><p>But the strong borders that had worked in their favor before, to keep the climate refugees out, now worked against them.  Historical memory turned out to be surprisingly long, at least as far as the Catastrophes went.  No one wanted to take on a bunch of dairy farmers who only knew how to make cheese, and especially not the descendents of the rich people in their bunkers, who’d brought the rest of the world to the brink of catastrophe while they themselves stayed safe behind reinforced steel walls.  </p><p>If it hadn’t been for Barret’s past as a border smuggler, they never would have attempted this crossing at all.  </p><p>Not that Cloud and Tifa had much tying them here, to Greenland and their childhood village of Niebelheim.  It was as good as a dot on the map now.  Just like the settlements they passed on their trek north, it, too, had been abandoned.   </p><p>As for Aerith, she was hoping to find word of her mother, the scientist, in Svalbard. </p><p>None of the settlements they’d scavenged had had the supplies they'd hoped to find when they'd planned this trip, though.  Tifa had been optimistic at first, but now she privately doubted that Svalbard would be much different.</p><p>She tried to stay hopefully but Barret was probably right - it had likely been picked clean years ago.</p><p>***</p><p>They’d found their biggest fuel score yet in an abandoned airfield, after Cloud spotted the fuselage of a passenger jet poking out of the snow.  </p><p>They dug a tunnel to the cabin doors of the abandoned 747, and made the inside of the plane their campsite for almost a month as they excavated the rest of the airport.</p><p>If they’d had the fuel and supplies, they could have lived there forever, cozy in the first class passenger section under 30 feet of snow. Aerith took charge of their metal detector, holding it in front of her like a dowsing rod.  She had the best knack for it - her and Cloud.  </p><p>Of course, they weren’t the only scavengers here.  But Greenland was a big space - big and dangerous.  With the way the glaciers were shifting, even a step off the marked paths could be fatal.  That kept the foot traffic down.   By the time they found the airstrip, the jet fuel was long gone, carted off by others.  But the other little trucks and scooters on the tarmac still had gas in their tanks.</p><p>And the vehicles themselves - the metal frames, the electronics - were priceless.  No part of them could be replaced anymore.  Not to mention, fuel was unbelievably expensive nowadays.   Only the main highways had vehicles now.   All other travel was by foot or by sailboat.  Unless you were rich.</p><p>*** </p><p>They heard the roar of an engine as they sat huddled together at night - 9pm, and the sun still high in the sky. </p><p>Out in the open, they’d be obvious to anyone passing through.  Without a word they broke camp.  Tifa and Barret dug the tunnel hastily, while Cloud kept watch at the entrance. Aerith stood in the middle and passed buckets of snow to Cloud to spread over their footprints, covering them.  They managed to burrow into their hidey hold and seal the entrance just as the first truck rolled by.  </p><p>The sound of the wheels on the snow went on and on.  This wasn’t one or two vehicles, but a whole convoy.  Tifa tried to keep her breathing slow and even.  If one of the vehicles rolled over their hiding place, they’d all be crushed.  She breathed slowly through the straw, poked from their tiny cave through the snow to the surface, and tried to stay calm.  </p><p>***</p><p>Eventually the rumbling of the vehicles passed on.  But Barret held them back, cautious.  After a while Tifa thought she heard it - the vibrations of people passing overhead, in boots.  </p><p>“Turks?”  she mouthed to Barret, and he nodded, grim.  </p><p>Private security forces.  It meant they were close to one of the hidden bunkers, where the wealthy industrialists - the ones who had brought ecological disaster to the rest of the world - were holed up, like snakes.  </p><p>“What you think, Rude?  Rats out here?”</p><p>“They were here for sure, Reno,” an answering voice said.  “You can still see the footprints.”</p><p>“How recently, you think?”</p><p>“Hard to say, with the snow… couple of hours?”</p><p>“They’re probably not fair then.  What do you say, wanna go rat hunting?”</p><p>“Nah, I’m low on gas.  Plus they won’t last long out here… let’s just go back.”</p><p>“And if the boss asks what we saw?”</p><p>“We didn’t see nothing... You know how it is out here.  Too much of the same scenery, and your mind starts to play tricks on you.”</p><p>“That’s true… you’re no fun though,” Reno complained, as the vibrations of feet above started to move away.  “This is the only interesting thing that’s happened in weeks.”</p><p>“'May you live in interesting times' is a curse, not a blessing," Rude advised.  “Soon you’ll be glad to have such a boring job.” </p><p>“Ugh, shoot me first if I ever become as boring as you…”</p><p>Tifa, Cloud and Barret shared a look.  </p><p>“We track them,” Barret said.  “Carefully, though.”  </p><p>***</p><p>They needed the fuel.  They all agreed on that.  Without the fuel, they wouldn’t survive out here much longer.  </p><p>The only mining that took place these days was mining the abandoned settlements for metals, plastics, fuel.   To find one of the bunkers - and still with the security force guarding it - that was the motherload.  They’d be set for life, whether they stayed together or all went their separate ways. </p><p>Barret spent the night checking over his guns - assembling, disassembling, and oiling them.  Tifa stretched and meditated, trying to prepare her body for violence.  </p><p>Cloud - the most dangerous of them - did nothing at all.  He would snap into the fighting trance when the time came.  </p><p>“I wish we could avoid this,” Aerith said.  </p><p>“We can’t,” Barret told her.  </p><p>“I know,” Aerith said, lightly. "...it was just a stray thought.  You can count on me." </p><p>She had the gas, ready to mix and throw into the hidey hole to flush out the snakes.  The most crucial job of all.  </p><p>***</p><p>“Ready?” Barret asked them, and they nodded.  They’d eaten all the remaining rations, to get their strength up for this attempt. All or nothing, and Tifa loved to gamble.</p><p> Now that they were here, though, Tifa could see it was hopeless - there were far too many vehicles parked in front for this to be anything but a suicide run.   </p><p>But they’d eaten the last of their supplies.  Their fuel was almost gone.  </p><p>This was their only chance.  </p><p>“Okay,” Barret said.  “On my mark… three… two…”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading!  Comments welcome here or <a href="https://subdee.tumblr.com/">on tumblr</a>.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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